My experience in a wide variety of health care settings, ranging from intensive and coronary care to long-term care and home care, led me to employ systems thinking about how to improve care transitions, and to consider the role that technology could play in improving care across settings.

Sharon Hewner is a research professor in the School of Nursing. Her research focuses on the interaction between nurse care coordinators, patients and their caregivers at the time of hospital discharge. Hewner’s team, which includes primary care physicians, nurse researchers, and engineers, examines how technology and health information exchange can improve the delivery of person-centered care during the transition to post-discharge settings.

Hewner recently completed the Coordinating Transitions project (AHRQ funded). The work utilized a health information exchange to alert nurse care coordinators in primary care when the patient is discharged to ensure an outreach phone call within 72 hours of discharge. The technology that the team developed is now used in an eight county region of WNY. Through avoided hospitalization and emergency department visits, this has resulted in a $1,300 reduction in cost of care per adult Medicaid recipient with pre-existing chronic conditions.

Hewner’s current research compares the efficacy of community-based care coordination models for complex and high-need patients. An additional focus is using data mining, cognitive work analysis and natural language processing to develop a conversational assistant to support nurse care coordinators in the development of a comprehensive shared care plan that follows the patient throughout the health care system.

Education

PhD, Anthropology, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

Dissertation: Elder Care in an Amish and an English Rural Community: A Comparative Medical Anthropological Study

MS, Gerontological Nursing, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

Thesis: Changes in Physical and Psychological Functioning in Elderly Patients in the Acute Hospital Waiting Nursing Home Placement

Teaching Innovation Award, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, 2012

Nurse of the Year in Performance Management, Quality and Improvement, March of Dimes, Rochester, NY, 2012

Distinguished Alumni Award, Lockport Senior High School, Lockport, NY

Patricia H. Garman Behavioral Health Nursing Endowment Fund Award, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, School of Nursing, Buffalo, NY

Quality and Safety Education in Nursing, Education Consortium Institute, selected representative of University at Buffalo, School of Nursing, Charleston, NC

Improving Care Transitions and Care Coordination in Frail Elders at the End-of-Life, Second Place Scientific Abstract at the Science of Compassion: Future Directions in End-of-Life and Palliative Care, National Institute of Nursing Research.

Mecca S. Cranley Nursing Research Mentorship Award, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, School of Nursing, Buffalo, NY

Research Careers in Anthropology Graduate Fellowship, US Department of Education, Fund for Improvement for Post-secondary Education

Professional Activities

Board Member, Niagara Hospice

Board Member, HEALTHeLINK

Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing

Participant in Nursing Knowledge Big Data Science Care Coordination

Participant in American Nurses Association/Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT Care Planning Workgroup